Dae's Christmas Past (24 page)

“Can you hear yourself describing a plan to catch someone who uses demon horses to kill people?” Gramps asked. “It’s crazy.”

“That’s why I’m talking to you about it,” I argued. “Chief Michaels couldn’t handle this and neither could Sheriff Riley. But you understand these things because of Grandma Eleanore. You know they’re real. Kevin too. You have law enforcement smarts, but you can also see the other side.”

Gramps shook his head. “Better put on some coffee. I think best with a cup in my hand.”

As we started planning, I could see that he hated that he couldn’t be at the site with us, but he was willing to help us get it together. So was Kevin.

“You have to assume there might be more than just the shaman who’s summoning the demons.” Gramps held a cup of strong hot coffee. “All of those diggers out there could be his accomplices.”

Kevin agreed. “It will be harder now that Dr. Sheffield is gone, but we should try to get a list of the men and women working there. If we consider that they could be involved, numbers can make a difference.”

“We don’t have time for that. It will be another month until the next full moon. We’re not going to be able to come up with anything near the number of people working out there,” I reminded him. “Right now there’s me and you.”

“And me,” Mary Catherine said. “I know I don’t look like I could bring much to a fight, but I can call the wild horses and every other animal on the island to help us. I can be quite formidable if I put my mind to it.”

Gramps smiled and squeezed her hand. “I’ll say. You knocked me down when I wasn’t looking.”

Mary Catherine kissed his cheek, and I went to get a package of chocolate chip cookies. It was so wonderful to see them look at each other that way.

There was a knock on the front door, and I veered from the kitchen to answer it.

Jake was standing on the porch. “Can I come in?”

I opened the door wider and peered outside. “Everyone is looking for you. They think you killed Dr. Sheffield.”

He snorted. “What else is new? I guess from now on if anyone dies around here, it’s gonna be my fault.”

“Especially when it looks like you’re the one with the most motive,” Kevin said.

Jake stopped. “I’ll come back later, Dae. I don’t want to interrupt anything.”

“You might as well come in.” I closed the door. “We’re talking about something that concerns you—getting rid of the demon horses.”

I wasn’t sure how he’d take it. For a moment he was uncertain, but then he relaxed. “Well why didn’t you say so? Do you folks know more about them than I do? All I know is that they want to destroy everything. I could feel it as they dug up the big horse statue. I just can’t figure out why.”

“Get a cup of coffee,” Gramps invited. “Dae will enlighten you.”

Jake went to the coffeemaker. “Got anything stronger?”

“I think we’d best keep it straight,” Mary Catherine said. “We need our heads about us to get through it.”

While the cookies were being passed around, Jake took a seat with a cup of coffee. I ran through all my visions, and the information about Osisko. “I know now what I’m seeing, what he’s trying to tell me. We’re coming up with a plan to catch the present day shaman who summoned the horses—maybe to kill Tom and Dr. Sheffield—maybe to create a distraction so he could kill them. We could use another person to help out.”

“You know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, darlin’,” Jake drawled. “But how do we fight something we can’t see?”

Kevin’s eyes narrowed at Jake’s endearment, but he ignored it. “We can see the people doing the magic. That’s who we need to stop.”

“Makes sense,” Jake agreed. “Who do we like for this shaman fella?”

“We don’t know,” I admitted. “All I’ve seen is the one from the past. Maybe Osisko can help us. He knows exactly what’s going on. He’s just not great on explaining it.”

“But he’s real, right?” Jake asked. “He’s not like a ghost or something, is he?”

“Not exactly,” I said. “Mary Catherine saw him too.”

“But she talks to animals.” Jake smiled at her. “No offense, ma’am.”

“I’m not a bit offended by what I do.” She smiled back at him. “Speaking with animals doesn’t make me crazy, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

There was another knock on the front door and I went to answer it—it was Chief Palo.

“Dae.” She nodded and looked past me into the crowded living room. “Jake. I’ve been looking for you.”

“You have to hear what they have to say before you take me in again, Chief. It may sound a little crazy, but it’s what I’ve been trying to tell everyone for the past few weeks.”

Chief Palo took off her hat and jacket. “All right. You’ve got five minutes.”

Five minutes later, she was overwhelmed and skeptical about my information. “And you believe this?” she asked Gramps and Kevin. “Sheriff Riley explained about Dae’s ‘gifts’, but he never mentioned anything like this.”

“I was sheriff for many years. I was a deputy for even longer. I’ve seen and heard some crazy things that many people didn’t believe,” Gramps said. “My granddaughter has been right more times than she’s been wrong about some things. I don’t pretend to understand it, but I know it happens.”

“Sheriff Riley and Chief Michaels are never going to believe it,” Palo flatly stated.

“They will when it’s real,” I told her. “They always do. They don’t like it, but they believe it.”

Chief Palo shook her head. “What can I do to help?”

“We don’t have a lot of time, or many people to get this done,” I said. “If you help—and you ignore Jake for a while—maybe by tomorrow it will be over.”

She stared at Jake. “All right. I’ll help. But Jake, you’d better be standing right next to me the whole time. If you’re playing me for a fool, I’ll make sure you don’t get out of jail again.”

He nodded. “I’m not going anywhere, ma’am. I want to stop these weird people from trying to wreck Duck and Corolla, and I want my home back.”

“Then let me grab a cup of coffee, and you can fill me in on what we’re planning to do.”

I did most of the talking, but Gramps and Kevin jumped in to help plan the strategy.

“You’ll have to catch them summoning the horses, doing something tangible,” Chief Palo added. “No one is going to believe it if we don’t.”

“Agreed.” Kevin drew a rough map of Jake’s property.

“I could’ve done that, boyfriend,” Jake said.

“Maybe,” Kevin agreed. “But I thought of it first, cowboy.”

Jake added information to Kevin’s map, pointing out the possible areas where the summoning could take place. “The only thing I don’t get is why they’d summon the demon horses again tonight after already accomplishing Sheffield’s death.”

“I think that’s where you come in.” Kevin slapped him on the back. “You have to make them want to summon the horses again to kill you.”

“Me?” Jake asked. “It seems like they would’ve already done that if they’d wanted me dead.”

“We have to figure out why they summoned the horses to kill Tom and Dr. Sheffield and not you,” I said. “Anything come to mind that might help?”

“What about the note from Dr. Sheffield?” Mary Catherine reminded me. “What did he say?”

I’d almost forgotten the note Nancy had given me at the meeting. I found it in my pocket and read it again. “He said he wanted to talk about the big horse being sent to Raleigh.”

“Why would he want to talk to you about it?” Gramps asked.

Kevin took a look at the note. “That’s it? Why was that so urgent?”

Jake thought about it. “I don’t think some of the workers out there are happy about it. I heard him arguing with Duran. I didn’t pay much attention then but now, I wonder if that’s why Sheffield was killed. If they plan to use the big horse to raise these demons, taking it away would be a bad thing.”

“That makes sense,” Chief Palo said.

“What if Tom died because of his close association with the wild horses?” Mary Catherine suggested. “I can tell you that the horses are devastated by his death. They really considered him a dear friend and loyal to their cause. What if the man summoning the demon horses doesn’t want the real horses around for whatever he has planned?”

Gramps nodded. “That could be true, as much as any of this. Jake is close to the horses, but Tom lived and breathed for them. If they don’t want the wild horses here, getting rid of him would be a good idea.”

Jake sipped his coffee. “Tom was the one who got the grants to keep working with the horses. He fed them, and found medicine for them. I could see where his death could cause the area to lose the wild horse population. It’s already a struggle to keep them here.”

“But why wouldn’t the shaman of the demon horses—I can’t believe I just said that—want the other horses here?” Chief Palo bit her lip to repress a smile.

“We don’t know their complete history,” Mary Catherine said. “But I do know that the horses I spoke with resent having the demons here. Maybe they were partially responsible for the cult disappearing.”

“I can’t believe you said that with a straight face.” Jake laughed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think we were all out of our minds.”

“Saying we’re not insane,” Kevin continued, “what could they have in mind? What can you do with demon horses? It’s not like it was a thousand years ago. They run up and down the road and wreck furniture. I don’t think they’d stand up well to an AK47.”

“There must be something more to it than that,” I said. “Maybe they aren’t at full power yet.”

“Or this shaman fella doesn’t get it,” Chief Palo added. “If he’s trying to pull demon horses out of a fire, he’s not exactly living in our times, is he?”

“That’s true,” Mary Catherine considered.

“So you go in as they’re doing this ritual, guns blazing?” Gramps met my gaze. “I don’t think much of that plan.”

“It could make them move faster. They don’t have much time left tonight.” I glanced at the full moon hanging above us in a misty white gauze.

“Say I go in and rile these people up,” Jake said. “What happens next?”

“Horace is right,” Kevin said. “It’s not much of a plan—but it’s all we have. Let’s say we stop this shaman from summoning the horses tonight, and somehow, the authorities believe us and put some of them in jail. It would be a misdemeanor charge at best. The legal system won’t be able to hold them for practicing magic. We have to do something to prevent it from happening again.”

“We’ll have to destroy the big horse,” I told them. “Nothing started happening until they’d dug it up. I don’t know how to get a legal conviction against the person summoning them or those helping him. But at least we can stop the demons. That’s probably the best we can do.”

“I think I missed the part about how to actually stop the demons.” Jake scratched his chin. “Do we know how to do that?”

I took a deep breath. “I think Osisko will help me.”

“So you’re getting rid of the demons?” Kevin asked.

“I don’t think so,” Gramps chimed in.

“Let’s take it one step at a time, huh?” I didn’t want everyone falling apart before we even got to Corolla. I was convinced this was the right thing to do, but I had to keep my team together.

Everyone studied the crudely drawn map on the kitchen table. Kevin began to assign roles to the participants. He had Jake going in by himself. I pointed out that two people should go in together.

“Who did you have in mind to go in with him?” Kevin asked.

“I think you should go in with him,” I responded.

Both men had a dozen reasons why that wouldn’t work. They didn’t sound valid to me. “Jake needs someone with him in case the reaction is bad from the shaman,” I told them. “You’d be good for that, Kevin.”

“I could go with Jake,” Chief Palo volunteered.

She’d barely spoken when she got a call. “There’s a bad wreck on Highway Twelve in Corolla. It shouldn’t take long to clear it up. Can you wait for me?”

I didn’t know what to say. After she left to answer the call, the idea of waiting started making me nervous. If this wasn’t resolved tonight, who knew what could happen during the month between? Jake could go to jail. Whoever was taking over the excavation from Dr. Sheffield could move matters up to a point where it would be even more difficult to destroy the cult.

“I know what you’re thinking, Dae,” Gramps said. “There aren’t enough of you to go around. You have to wait for Chief Palo.”

“We have the element of surprise,” I told him. “At least we do right now. After tonight, who knows?”

“I agree with Dae,” Mary Catherine said. “We’ve only lost one person.”

“One person with a gun,” Jake reminded her.

“I don’t need a gun,” she replied. “I have hundreds of wild horses waiting to help us. I’ve been talking to them while we’ve been discussing this.”

“I hate to say it, but I’m with Jake on this,” Kevin said. “I know it won’t be easy, but we should take this opportunity to get a few more people involved. I’m not knocking the horses, Mary Catherine, but I’d take two people with guns over a dozen horses.”

Even with Kevin, Jake, and Gramps against the idea, I Knew we had to go. “We can’t wait. We can leave a message for Heidi. She can meet us out there. We have to do something tonight.”

Mary Catherine agreed with me. “I believe this is true. Something big is coming. I can feel it. We don’t have a few hours to wait. We have to take control of the situation, gentlemen.”

Jake held up his hands. “All right. You convinced me. I’m in.”

“Kevin?” I asked.

“I’m not letting you go alone, Dae.” He glared at Jake. “You better be ready to do your part of this.”

“If I’m not, you can always shoot me, boyfriend.”

“Not a problem,” Kevin retorted.

“Let’s go,” I insisted.